Judge rules againt Framingham head shop owner, employees

Thursday

Apr 10, 2014 at 12:01 AM

By Norman MillerDaily News Staff

FRAMINGHAM – A Framingham District Court judge has denied a request by the owner and employees of a Framingham tobacco shop shut down by police to dismiss the case or to block the use of evidence police seized.In his Tuesday ruling, Judge Robert Greco said that though there are problems with the seized evidence, he still denied the motion to dismiss and the motion to suppress filed by Terry M. Wilson, 29, of Northborough, the owner of the Grateful Head on Rte. 9, and her employees, David Grigorakos, 30, and Christopher Vaccarello, 31, both of Northborough. They each are charged with possession of drug paraphernalia with the intent to distribute.Although the Grateful Head billed itself as a tobacco shop, Framingham Police said the store sold drug paraphernalia, including marijuana pipes, vaporizers, water bongs, marijuana grinders and synthetic marijuana. Police also said they found several household items that had "hides" built into them, which they said are used to hide marijuana.Police served a search warrant on July 25 of last year and seized the items they said were illegal, including posters and shirts.Greco denied the motion to suppress because "there was probable cause that at least some of the items seized qualified as paraphernalia as defined" by state law.Although ruling against Wilson, Grigorakos and Vaccarello, Greco did find fault with some of the items seized."There are items that were seized by the police and the counts related to those items will ultimately be dismissed," Greco wrote in his decision. "For example, it's ridiculous to consider items of clothing as paraphernalia."Greco said it was also possible that some of the items may be able to be used only with small amounts of marijuana, and if that was the case, any counts regarding those items would be dismissed.He also said it was a hard decision because of the state legalizing medical marijuana."What we do with items that can be used both with legal and illegal amounts of marijuana and illegal drugs is at this point a mystery that would best be resolved by the legislature or the Supreme Judicial Court," he wrote. "It would be odd for the legislature to legalize some amounts of marijuana, but make it a crime to use items one might need to smoke it."Greco said, "For example, it would be a crime to posses a bong with the intent to use it with an illegal amount of drugs, but not if it was proven that it was possessed or sold to be used with water."Greco said all of those issues would need to be dealt with at another dismissal hearing or a trial."It could be a long trial," he wrote. "It would not be a very good use of time to do both, but it would be up to the parties as to how to proceed."Wilson, Grigorakos and Vaccarello are all due back in court on May 19 for a status hearing.Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. For up-to-date crime news, follow Norman Miller on Twitter @Norman_MillerMW.

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